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文案写作策略：Big Idea
This copywriting tactic makes more sales than all others combined
When Claude Hopkins (famous copywriter) started working with Schlitz beer in the early 1900s he had a problem.
College Derek could tell you the problem…. Schlitz sucks.
Well, actually I’m lying.
At the time, Schlitz didn’t suck quite as bad. They were fifth in the beer market, if you can believe it, but they had no clear differentiators. In other words, they had a generic product indistinguishable from the competition.
But good old Claude figured out something revolutionary.
He went deep in his research of Schlitz, their process and what their competitors were doing.
And he figured out what we now call a “Big Idea”.
Hopkins toured the Schlitz brewery and was impressed by the company’s rigorous purification methods.
However, what struck him most was that these processes were not unique to Schlitz but were common practices in the industry, though unknown to the general public.
So he started writing ads boasting of Schlitz’s purity.
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This concept of “purity” became the Big Idea that catapulted Schlitz from 5th in the beer market, to tied-for-first.
Hopkins created a home run ad campaign simply by making an observation about his product that no competitors had mentioned. The rest of his copy was fairly standard for a beer ad.
What I’m saying here is:
Big Ideas are often more important than the actual copy you write.
They are what turn a mediocre or even a good sales letter into a massive success.
A lot of copywriters don’t think of the Big Idea as being their primary job. I mean, their job is to write a bunch of words, right? The Big Idea feels so small in comparison to the overall size of a sales letter.
But it is the key to creating a massive success… even if the rest of your copy is so-so.
I’ll give you a few examples of this tomorrow.
I promise once you grasp this, it’ll make you a lot more money as a copywriter and business owner.
Talk then!
— Derek
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5 real-life examples of “Big Ideas” that built huge businesses
Yesterday I told you that we’d be discussing how to use Big Ideas in your copy this week.
There are 4 critical things you should know about Big Ideas:
- Big Ideas help you sell more products.
- Big Ideas are almost always more important than the actual copy you write.
- Big Ideas focus on one attractive benefit that’s easy-to-understand.
- Big Ideas aren’t always easy to figure out, but I have a simple 80/20 system you can use (explained tomorrow) to help you get close to finding your’s.
Before we do anything, we obviously need to understand clearly what Big Ideas are.
*Instead of trying to explain what the Big Idea is, it’s easier if I show you Big Ideas in action.*
So let’s dig right into some examples:
Example 1: Schlitz beer
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This is one of the most classic examples of a Big Idea transforming a business.
Every beer company’s ads were the same but copywriter Claude Hopkins realized Schlitz could focus on “purity”. Interestingly, all other beer companies used a similar process to ensure purity. Hopkins was just the first to mention it.
The copy was totally normal and average, but the “purity” Big Idea launched Schlitz to number 1.
Big Idea: Purity
Example 2: Ramit Sethi (I Will Teach You To Be Rich)
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Ramit Sethi had an existing business, and it was doing ok, but he focused mostly on how to save money and invest, which credit cards to use, and so on - the typical financial advice. (He literally wrote a book on it.) These were all things his competitors talked about too.
Then he stumbled on the Big Idea of developing your own “rich life”, which still involved saving, but also involved spending extravagantly on the things you love and saving specifically for those things. His platform has since blown up - including a Netflix show.
Big Idea: Design your Rich Life and save for that
Example 3: BluBlockers
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BluBlockers took over the world in the 1990s and late 2000s - and they were the product of copywriter Joe Sugarman. He could have just said, “Here’s a cool new style of sunglasses.” That’s what most brands do.
Instead his Big Idea was a “Vision Breakthrough” or, “Here’s a pair of glasses that give you superpowers out in the sun by blocking blue light.” This was not a popular idea at the time (but you hear about it everywhere now).
Big idea: These glasses give you superpowers
Example 4: Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil
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Most olive oil producers advertise their superior flavors and the quality of their ingredients. Copywriter Gary Bencivenga saw that while they sometimes mentioned “freshness”, they never backed it up.
His Big Idea? Making it clear that his readers had never actually tasted real, fresh olive oil. It’s almost a challenge to this readers - “well, I might as well buy a bottle of this to see what real, fresh olive oil tastes like.”
Big Idea: Fresh olive oil is rare but tastes better
Example 5: CopyHour
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I thought I’d throw this one in since everyone on this list is already familiar with it. Most other courses on copywriting say they’ll teach you how to write “winning sales copy”. And, to be honest, I went with that with CopyHour for a long time (while emphasizing it’s done through handwriting) - but then sales started dipping (the market got used to that Big Idea) so I needed something new.
The new Big Idea? Hard-wire the language & patterns of six and seven figure copy into your brain through handwriting over 90 days. This new Big Idea has been a significant boost to the business (and it’s a 100% true statement - it’s just a more tangible way to describe what the course has always done).
Big Idea: Hard-wire six and seven figure copy into your brain
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As you can see from the above examples, the Big Idea is generally the real “power mover” in your copy.
Having one super sexy benefit that your competition doesn’t have (or doesn’t seem to have) is all it takes for most people to want to buy your products.
The rest of your copy is just there to push them over the edge. You’ll make a lot more from everything you write when you get this right, and your copy doesn’t even have to be better than ‘average’.
So now that you get it, I’ll show you how I come up with Big Ideas for my copy. It’s actually pretty easy and you might have already spotted part of the trick in the examples above.
That’ll be coming tomorrow so stay tuned!
— Derek
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My step-by-step process to manufacture winning Big Ideas
If your copy is failing to take off and sell like crazy, there’s a good chance you’re not coming up with good enough Big Ideas.
Big Ideas are the “engine” behind the world’s best copy.
And Big Ideas are often more important than your copy itself.
When you get a great Big Idea, it becomes “sticky” in your customers’ minds. If they’re in the market for what you sell, usually all they’ll need to hear from you is your one-line Big Idea and they’ll be sold. The rest of your copy is just there to convince them you’re legit and push them over the edge.
(Check out my email yesterday for examples of Big Ideas.)
So how do you actually come up with a good Big Idea?
Well, I can tell you how I do it.
It’s important to point out first - this takes practice.
Big Ideas are a perfect example of The 80/20 Principle in copy: they are the tiny levers that create massive results. For that reason, you’ll have to spend a bit of time on crafting a lot of one-sentence super sexy benefits…
…until finally, after a day of rest, one will just slap you in the face and leave you with a gut feeling that, “This is the one.”
So with that said, the first thing to keep in mind:
*Step #1: Remember that a Big Idea is one single exciting super-sexy benefit of your product.*
Your product could have 15 amazing benefits that your customers crave.
However, a Big Idea is just ONE idea.
If you start focusing on too many benefits at once, they all lose power. We as humans are unfortunately very single-minded and lose focus when we’re presented with too much information.
You’ll always win bigger by putting the majority of your focus on the one benefit that gets your audience worked up more than any other.
Step #2: Write out all the benefits your competitors claim to provide (or don’t provide).
For example, yesterday I mentioned Ramit Sethi and I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
In the world of personal finance, everything is about saving more money by pinching pennies. Cut out the lattes, downsize your home, sell your cars, and generally don’t do anything extravagant in your life - then you’ll be able to retire comfortably at 65 so you can die peacefully at 70.
And that’s how he started too - teaching the same stuff in his own voice.
But then he mixed it up.
Step #3: Take that core idea and use one of these 9 Big Idea Prompts to remix it.
They are CREATE BIG:
- Combine Ideas: Combine two different ideas or benefits into one to create something new. GI Joes took the idea of dolls like Barbie (for little girls) and added action (for little boys).
- Reverse Thinking: What’s the opposite way to say this? Instead of “save money” it’s “spend money smartly”.
- Eliminate Parts: Remove benefits or features. Subtract until the product does one extremely important thing better than anyone else.
- Adapt Solutions From Other Fields: Use solutions from other industries for a fresh perspective. Netflix for X. The Tesla of Y.
- Technology: Attach some form of technology to an idea. (You see this everywhere now with AI - it’s the same old product, but now with AI woven into it.)
- Examine Futures: Make the idea seem futuristic. (The old Sharper Image catalogs did this for all their products - they made it feel like you were looking at future products you could buy today.)
- Build Constraints: Create constraints like budget or time limits.
- Imagine Scales: Multiply the idea. Change the size or scale of the idea. (Instead of “learn your favorite songs”, you promise “learn the simple chord progressions that allow you to learn EVERY song”.)
- Gain Perspectives: Narrow in by looking at the idea from a different demographic or cultural viewpoint. What benefits does this group immediately see from their perspective that you never could?
Using Ramit Sethi again as an example, he pivoted from “save money by pinching pennies” to “define your Rich Life and save so you can spend extravagantly on that - and cut everything else”.
From there, his business took off.
Go through the list above and you’ll see a few Big Idea Prompts that, when combined, could take him from “save money pinching pennies” to that “Rich Life” Big Idea.
These three steps alone will get you 90% of the way to your Big Idea.
It’ll feel slow at first - but with practice it gets fast. And lucrative. Very lucrative.
But what about the last 10%?
The last 10% is how you hard-wire all these formulas in your head so Big Ideas just come immediately when you need them - like a flash of inspiration.
This is how you become that person who churns out letter after letter after letter that makes $$$ - and, by extension, become that person making that $$$ yourself (whether you’re an entrepreneur writing for yourself or a freelancer writing for other businesses).
We’ll talk about that tomorrow.
Talk then!
— Derek
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